On Thu, 13 Jul 2017 17:58:52 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Thursday, July 13, 2017 at 5:12:49 PM UTC-4, Stormin' Norman wrote:
On Thu, 13 Jul 2017 20:44:02 GMT, Nannette Kendall
m wrote:

I have a tenant who says she rarely uses her garbage disposal. However, it is
seized up when she does try to use it. Is it just rusting to the point it
won't turn? If so, is there a way to lubricate it to keep it from rusting?


This is typical of disposals, which is one of the things that makes
them a major pain in the butt. Consider eliminating the disposal
completely, you will save money and reduce tenant complaints. It is
just as easy to put food waste in the kitchen garbage can.

Ï am curious as to your use of the word "typical". Based on my experience of roughly
30 years of having a garbage disposal in my house and one in each half of a duplex that
other family members lived in, I have replaced the disposal in each of the houses once.
I would estimate that the old, noisy ones lasted 15 - 20 years. The InSinkErators that I
replaced them with are much quieter are still going strong.

As far as jamming, my old Kenmore POS used to jam and required the use of the
reversing wrench every now and then, but the InSinkErators have been jam free since
installation well over 10 years ago. (Plus it's so quiet that I sometimes forget it's on
until I turn the water off)

Has your experience been that disposals seize up on a regular basis?

I have to disagree on the "just as easy to put food waste in the garbage can" comment
also. A quick rinse of food scraps into the drain and the flip of a switch is pretty darn easy.
Much easier than using the standard sink strainer basket to catch the scraps and then dumping
it, rinsing it, etc.

IMHO, of course.

We have rentals. The garbage disposals have always been the #1 cause
of repair calls for us. Eliminating the disposals dramatically
reduced repair visits and the tenants easily adapted to their absence.
I also did not experience any increase in drain clogs.

When I replaced the disposals, I used very high quality sink strainers
that do an excellent job of filtering out everything from bits of food
to animal fur and hair.

As always, your personal experiences might be different, but I prefer
to have the lowest maintenance investments possible. Additionally,
being in California, anything we can do to reduce water use is a
positive thing.